Analysis of Leadership in Crisis-Mode: The Case of BP and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Analysis of Leadership in Crisis-Mode
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Analysis of Leadership in Crisis-Mode
A leader plays an imperative role in an organization. A leader is responsible for setting goals that are supposed to be followed by the other team in the organization. Often, most leaders make critical decisions that can improve or destroy the organization. This implies that a leader is a very significant person and his or her roles cannot be undermined in an organization. The Deepwater Horizon disaster is among the disasters that we still remember in history that caused deaths and pollution especially in the American tourism industry. This paper will focus on the Deepwater Horizon disaster case study and my opinion on the way that a leader is expected to act in the case of a crisis in an organization.
Deepwater Horizon disaster
This disaster is among the most tragic accidents that have ever happened in the world. It occurred in April 20, 2010 as the BP company was drilling barrels of oil. The mistake is attributed to the management because of allowing installation of weak equipment’s that could not withstand the high pressure. This resulted to a massive oil spill that killed 11 workers and injured 17 more of them. This raised critics especially towards Tony Hayward who was the C.E.O of the company at that time (Sellnow & Seeger, 2013). However, the leader did not provide a relevant response to clear the mess that had already been caused and this led to his replacement later during the year. On the other hand, it is good to acknowledge some of the efforts and qualities that the leader showed during the crisis. For instance, having caused the mess at the sea waters, the C.E.O decided to conduct a clean up that took over 40 billion in terms of cost. This is not a small amount in business and making such a decision might be very difficult to some managers in organization. This indicated that the leader valued the public health compared to the interests of the organization. In my opinion, I think the C.E.O tried his best to contain the situation. However, failure to implement preventive measures is a lack of weakness in his position.
How a Leader Should Respond to a Crisis
Risks are common in the market and in most cases, it is not possible to avoid some of the risks that an organization is exposed to. Risks can cause losses to an organization and even lead to closure of the busines...